Italian Meringue Buttercream

I love Italian Meringue Buttercream!  It has three ingredients:  eggs, butter, and sugar.  I think this has to be one of the healthiest buttercreams that I know of.   No shortening and half the sugar.  But lots of butter!
First you need to melt the sugar.  I use palm sugar, so it is easier to melt then cane sugar, in my opinion. 
In a saucepan, bring to a boil:
1/4 cup water
2 cups palm sugar

When the sugar comes to a boil set a timer for 7 minutes, and let boil.

After 5 minutes, in the bowl of an electric mixer, begin to whip at high speed:
1 cup egg whites (about 7 large eggs)  I am not exact in this measurement, I'm not worried if there is a little bit extra egg white.

Whip until stiff.  They should be done when the timer goes off.

With the mixer on high speed, slowly beat the sugar syrup into the egg whites, pouring the syrup to the side of the bowl to avoid the whip.

Continue to beat until the bowl is cool to the touch, about 10 minutes.  This works with the plastic bosch, but if you are using a metal bowl, I usually put it in the fridge for ten to twenty minutes to cool down.  If it is not cool, then you will have expensive mush on your hands after adding the butter.

Slowly add:  1 1/2 lbs (6 sticks) butter at room temperature, cut into 1-inch pieces and added one at a time.  I forgot to take a picture of this stage.  When the buttercream gets thick, reduce the speed to low.

Mix in at low speed:
1 teaspoon vanilla exract

Bight until light and fluffy.  At some points the mixture might look curdled.  Just keep beating; it will become smooth again.  Seriously, just keep beating it and don't get discouraged, it should firm up.

If it is raining outside and there is a lot of moisture, try cutting out some of the butter.  IMBC does not like moisture.  If you are using cane sugar you want to use 1/2 cup of water and 2 1/4 cups sugar, reduce the water if there is a lot of humidity.  I actually accidently only used one cup of sugar for my last batch, and nobody noticed!  LOL

This is a very rich and moody buttercream.  I once used it for a baby shower cake here http://missyscakesandaprons.blogspot.com/2011/03/his-eye-is-on-sparrow-cake.html and it was very "wet" from the humidity and I could not get it smooth, so I grabbed my green air brush and painted it to look like a bush.
I got the original recipe from Whimsical Bakehouse.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
Missy

I made this cake with IMBC, the roses are royal icing